Can Our School Make Foreign Teachers Take The English Proficiency Exam?

[garro]

Our school wants all teachers to take the English proficiency exam. I am not that bothered but resent having to do it on my day-off. Some of the other foreign teachers are up in arms about it. Can we refuse?

[Scott]

Interesting. Our school has all non-native English speaking foreign teachers take a language proficiency exam, but this is in order to get the Work Permit. It's a requirement that the gov't (or some office in the gov't wants), not the school.

If you are a native speaker (and this is defined as someone who comes from a country where English is the official and common language--I don't have the exact wording), then you shouldn't need to take the exam. If you are already employed and have a contract and have met all the requirements of employment, then you shouldn't have to take it. A new rule or policy of the school is best applied to new teachers rather than existing teachers.

But it's easy to use 'should and shouldn't'. At the end of the day, if the school wants you to do it, they will probably bully you into it one way or the other.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

[garro]

Thanks Scott, it is actually the non-native English speaking foreign teachers who are most annoyed by it. I just wonder about the significance of it all.

Thanks

[Scott]

I think for non-native English speakers it's standard to take the test. All of our teachers have had to take the test for quite a number of years. They usually take the TOEIC, if they are in Thailand. There are other tests as well, but apparently this is the easiest for most people.

You might want to check and see if this is a requirement for the Work Permit. I vaguely remember when it first started at our school, the teachers were told to take it, but weren't told why. Typical. Native speakers aren't required to take it, however.

[Mike45]

Thanks Scott, it is actually the non-native English speaking foreign teachers who are most annoyed by it. I just wonder about the significance of it all.

Thanks

Now it makes sense......Garro your from a non native English language country......Ireland isn't it?

[Ijustwannateach]

I've never even heard of this test, but we're all native speakers here... seems odd that they would ask the natives to do it, if it were a government policy (would assume the policy would be aimed at foreigners from non-native-speaking countries as defined by some list as Scott says).

[garro]

Thanks Scott, it is actually the non-native English speaking foreign teachers who are most annoyed by it. I just wonder about the significance of it all.

Thanks

Now it makes sense......Garro your from a non native English language country......Ireland isn't it?

To be sure, to be sure.

Sure aren't I from the emerald isle and more of a savage English speaker.

Top of the morning to ya.

[mizzi39]

I work for a Govt. school and have never heard of this test.I will check with some of the non natives and get back to y'all .

[Firelily]

Since I am a non-native speaker, I had to take an IELTS test (3 years ago), but to this day I haven't been able to find out which authority or department insists on having my scores. The native speakers haven't had any tests.

[Loaded]

Our school wants all teachers to take the English proficiency exam. I am not that bothered but resent having to do it on my day-off. Some of the other foreign teachers are up in arms about it. Can we refuse?

I guess the school is talking about this:

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/general-english/cpe.html

Someone will have to pay for it though. I hope it's the school.

[Scott]

There are a number of internationally recognized proficiency tests. Over the years, we've had teachers submit a variety of them. The most common test for those who haven't taken an exam is TOEIC. There is also one given at Chulalongkorn University, I believe it's CUTHEP.

[njpski]

If I was a parent spending significant sums on providing my child with a dual-language education, I would want the teachers to be highly proficient in English when delivering ALL classes.

When I was at school, my year 8 French teacher was French-Canadian, his language skills were fine but he imparted an accent to us which resulted in poor showings when we went to Alliance Francaise exams.

[Scott]

The difficulty with many of these tests that are being discussed is that they are designed for non-native speakers of English. For the vast majority of native speakers the results of the test would not be valid for the purpose of the test.

[seykota]

Native English teachers are asked to take the TOEIC test at the same time as the students as a way to 'bump up' the uni's students average score. Seriously.